Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-23

both paid court to her, but he had won he
He was richer than I, and in France, "
know, that is the first consideration
parents in giving their daughter. Wei
though I loved her with all my heart, whe
she became his wife I was loyal to her as
him, as a gentleman and q friend. OF cour
I sought her society-it was natural, was
not, that I should do SO? III advisedl OF
i'll advised-nobody sees that better tina
I do now But I swear, if swear
might, that my loyalty to him and I
her never, wen in thought, wavered a
instant. The world, the wicked worlt
thought otherwise; and wicked tongues ver
loved him like q brother-and all the MOI
dearly that he was her husband. Yet no,
could I act otherwise than I did when on
day, urged on by these wicked tongues, b
rushed up to me on the boulevard and struc
me in the face, calling me liar, traitor
coward? It was done in the eyes of Paris
and I was hot blooded in those days. It wa
a provocation, a challenge which I wa
forced, as l thought then, to accept. w
fought next morning in the Bots des Vim
cennes. It was IN accident-yes, that thrus
Of mine was an accident-I shall always sa,
50. He ran upon my point. I could no
help myself. But 0, the horror of that mo
ment! The artist who painted that portrai
was n of those who took my Paul home
He told me that she looked thus when sh,
saw him as I made him. As for me, I wen
for many months a crazed man. I think i
was my great uncle, the bishop of T
who first suggested to me that if any atone
want for nv orSnoo <horo Gould h. - ~,ov1<
be in the devotion and service of a lifetime
I took his advice, for I was weary of thu
world, passed through the ordeal Of thu
noviciate and was ordained. My uncle gave
me this presbytere, and here l have lived
and worked for thirty years, humbly, OBJ
scurely and p%enitently. l have not atoned
no., no, Ihave not atoned; but I sometimes
think that Paul knows all now, and-and
perhaps has forgiven me.
II never saw her again. I never heard
Of her. Is she dead? Did she marry again:
Did she, as some say she intended to do, re-
turn to a convent? I do not know. have
never ceased to love her, as I did then,
loyalty and devoutly; not as the woman I
bad wanted to marry, but as the wife of my
friend-as my dear Paul's wife,"
I said nothing. I felt sorry now to have
called forth this confession. The quiet de-
spair of this old man as be told me the misery
of his ruined life was a poignant sorrow to
speaking he sat with his hand covering his
eyes. fancy there were tears in them.
We were sitting thus in silence in the
darkening room when the little maid came
running in.
an. le Cure, NJ. le Curer' she cried, "come
quickly! Old Bette is dying. She calls for
"Oh! do not say that" cried the cure,
to his feet. "Do not say that. My
old Bette! My faithful old servant! No, it
cannot be that after twenty years of loyal
service and sacrifice I am to lose her now"
ut is very certain, mon PEREZ said the
trembling girl, ''that old Bette is dying.
She says so herself, and 1 can see that she is
for she looks just like la mare Manon
did before she died. And she begs M. lie
Cure to come to her without delay
II come, I comet" cried the old man in
Of the deepest anguish. "But a doctor,
Jeanette, the doctor! Run for him. Oh,
that is useless, of course. He lives ten miles
away. What shall we do? What will be-
of us?"
81 have studied medicine" I said. 81
nay be able to be of some assistance. It
Y. lie Cure will permit, p--
'Come, comer' he cried, clutching me by
he arm. at is the blessing of Providence
IS there anything you want7 It is disease
# the heart. No-then come. But first,
Jeanette, run upstairs and see whether
monsieur can enter"
The girl had turned to obey when through
he silence of the house there rung the awful
totes of a dying woman's voice.
"Raoul, Raoull where are you? Je me
neurs, mon ami" It was the voice of a
high born lady. For what reason I know
lot I turnsd toward the picture. 1t seemed
he cry that should come from those lips.
The cure had started like a man who is
uddenly stabbed.
.'Mon Dieu, mon Dieu" he cried. "Whose
'oice is that?''
And with this cry he turned toward the
"Raoul, Raoul! You must come quickly
r it will be too late"
ut is old Bette that is calling you, M. le
>ure," said Jeanette, pointing to the room
Ibove. ut is her voice, is it not?"
"Bette's@' stammered the cure, sthe old
easant woman's? No, no, no! It was
direille's. Butt
meanwhile, monsieur" said Jeanette, |
the old woman dies"
II CO." said the cure. I did not follow
i'm; ] had some feeling that there would be
omething solemn--something sacred was to
e revealed in this last interview between
old cure and his dying servant. I knew
hat, great as may be the devotion and self
acrifice of the man, the devotion and self
Of the woman that loves him, or has |
wed him, can be immeasurably greater,
I believed that the cure would find out
nat his lifelong penance had had even on
MS earth its passing great reward, and that
love of the woman he had worshiped in
is youth had been with him and around
i'm, silent, watchful, all these years.
ut would AVE been a splendid DEVOTION"
said to myself as I made my way home,
and n possible only in a woman, to
u1nble herself as he had BUNDLED himself
ct lower, to leave the boudoir of the woman
{ the world for the kitchen Of a village
put off the elegant toilet and
put on the PEASANTS gown, aye, and more
all this, to live by his side, unknown to
i'm, respecting his loyalty to the dead-it
as sublime"
A year later I visited P again. They
Id me that the old cure had died about two
onths ago. I saw his grave in the church
ard, butt was not in the spot that he had
ughingly pointed out to me when he had
own me the church. l found it hidden
way in a corner, from which a splendid
ew of the sea could be obtained. There was
lother grave by its side, adorned with a
nple white cross, on which was written
e one word: "Mireille."
l had fashioned forth no untrue omance
Robert II. Sherard.
There is talk OF q match between Larry
of Walkerville, the all round ath-
e. who SPARED so we'll with the Sullivan
animation when here, and q man in
for $3.50 a side at mixed wrestling.
jerry Mullens, who is managing Gleas-
's affairs. is expecting to hear definitely
the subject every day. !